Hats... So Many Hats

In just two weeks, I have a new book coming out. It will be the eighth book that I've written since beginning this crazy journey a little less than three years ago. That's kind of crazy. Eight books. Granted, one is a novella and one is a novelette, but the other six are full length novels. Honestly, not to sound like I'm just piling the praise on myself or anything, but you have to understand that for decades prior, I didn't know if I had it in me to ever finish even one full length story.
Of course, I can't even begin to expound upon how much the indie publishing and ebook revolution has had a hand in making this possible. If I had to seek out an agent and send queries to publishers back when I polished the first manuscript for The Eyes of The Sun, I might still be waiting for a reply today. Even in the best case scenario, where a publisher promptly says yes, I would likely still be waiting for the debut of my first book. I kind of have to take a moment to step back and appreciate this.
Already, my head is swimming with ideas for the next book and the next after that. This is both the blessing and the curse of being self published. While there is an amazing swell of pride that comes with the term indie author, there's also the often glossed over fact that independent means in every aspect. As much as I would love to fight with the ideas in my head and begin my next adventure, I have work to do.
You see, my latest novel isn't going to sell itself. Eventually it may, but right out of the gates, no. This is where I am required to take off the author hat (Figuratively, that is. I can't write with a hat on because my brain overheats. Have you ever smelled cooked brains?) and put on the marketing hat (Which I assume is a real shady hat. Like a fedora or a pork pie hat.) that doesn't really fit so well on my head. What I'm saying is: maybe the hat analogy doesn't work for someone with a small head. Moving on!
That's part of the indie curse. See, the book I'm about to publish is fantastic and it's the second in a series, so there should be interest. Well... Maybe a little,but not as much as there would be if say, I was putting out another book in the Eyes series. Instead of writing more of the same, I refused to be fenced in and took off on a wild adventure into a completely different genre. Well okay, it's only completelydifferent to those of us who are fans of science fiction and fantasy novels. I imagine that if we asked the general public, all of my novels would be weird or for nerds. (They are. Make no mistake about that. I am the queen of weird nerd books, dammit!)
So... What do I do? How do I generate buzz? Well, for one, I've signed up to participate in the 2015 Author Cyber Convention on Goodreads. FYI, if you are reading this or are an avid reader and you are not on Goodreads, you need to fix that. It can be daunting at first, but hey, even I figured it out and as you might know by now, I'm so social media inept that GEICO could replace their cavemen with me. I know that doesn't make sense, okay, so shut up and pretend it does. The other thing I've done is... Well... I wrote a blog about how I have this new book coming out and... Oh... I'm actually still writing that.

Comments

Yep! I don't even think you need to join the group. Each of the participants have their own thread that serves as their booth. During the convention, they will have instructions on how to enter their contests and whatnot. I'll be directing people back here to try and win a copy of something.